14 Friday, September 20, 1985 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
PURELY COMMENTARY
Baedeker Guide
Continued from Page 2
ranged as to catch the rain-water
and conduct it to the cistern in
the court. The rooms, covered
with flat domes and each having
its own entrance, are grouped
round the court; the passages
and staircases are left open to
the air. The water of the cisterns
is quite wholesome when clear;
other sources of water are the
Fountain of the Virgin and Job's
Well. The new aqueduct serves
exclusively for the Haram esh-
Sherif and a few fountains.
Of the more recent suburbs, the
most important is the Jaffa quar-
ter on the N.W., in which the
houses are more like those of
Europe. Here also are several
large churches, convents, hos-
pices, charitable institutions, and
the like. It is probable that nearly
the half of the present population
of the city is settled in the sub-
urbs.
According to a recent estimate
of the population numbers at
least 70,000 of whom about 10,000
are Moslems, 45,000 Jews, and
15,000 Christians. The Christians
include 4000 Latins (e.g. Roman
Catholics), 250 United Greeks, 50
United Armenians, 7000 Or-
thodox Greeks, 1000 Armenians,
150 Copts, 100 Abyssianians, 100
Syrians and 1600 Protestants.
The number of Jews has greatly
risen in the last few decades, in
spite of the fact that they are
forbidden to immigrate or to pos-
sess landed property. The major-
ity subsist on the charity of their
European brethren, from whom
they receive their regular
khaluka, or allowance, and for
whom they pray at the holy
places. Sir Moses Montefiroe,
Baron Rothschild, and others, to-
gether with the Alliance Israelite
and the Society for the Assis-
tance of German Jews, have done
much to ameliorate the condition
of their poor brethren at
Jerusalem by their munificent
benefactions.
Such is the fascination of a most
notable, inerasable record. It retains the
elevated position gained by Baedeker. It
remains a guide for the guides. No won-
der that the noun has become an adjec-
tive: that when one speaks of a guide he
thinks of Baedeker.
Martin Gilbert:
"Jerusalem Rebirth"
impressive and as an addendum it
enriches.
Because it continues and enriches
the Jerusalem story, Dr. Gilbert may
forgive treating his work as an
addendum to Baedeker. As an addendum
to what could otherwise could be judged
as a mere guide for tourists, it enriches
the entire subject of Jerusalem. Because
Dr. Gilbert, in the course of a fascinating
story, finds it valuable to refer to and
quote from Baedeker, the continuity of
reviewing normalizes.
Dr. Gilbert treats his subject as "a
reawakening" of the Holy City and he
describes the devotions to Jerusalem,
marked by important observances, by
Christians, Moslems and Jews. His pref-
ace gives an important account of the
population status of Jerusalem in the
early as well as last years of the 19th
Century and he lists them as follows:
In 1838 Jerusalem had fewer
than 16,000 inhabitants. Of these,
5,000 were Muslim Arabs, 3,000
were Christian Arabs and 5,000
were Jews. Also living in the city
were about 100 European mis-
sionaries and traders, and 800
Turkish soldiers. By 1860 Jewish
immigration, mostly from Tsarist
Russia, had turned the Jews into
the largest single group in the
city. A decade later, pressure of
population led to the creation of
houses and suburbs on many of
the hills outside the city's
sixteenth-centuly walls. By 1896
the population had risen to 45,300
of whom 28,000 were Jews, 8,700
Christian Arabs, and 8,600 Mus-
lim,Arabs.
Gilbert's Jerusalem provides data on
the philanthropic activities of the
Jerusalem's
Rothschilds, on the important role in
Last Century:
support of the Jewish homes for the aged
and orphans by Moses Montefiore, and
Gilbert's Classic
the major Jewish services pri to the
A reviewer is confronted with a commencement of Zionist activi4es and
quandary. A decision has to be made leadership that revolutionized events in
whether Baedeker should lead off in dis- the 20th century.
World famous personalities figure in
cussing Jerusalem, in view of the ap-
pearance of a very great current volume, the reconstructed Gilbert record. The
Jerusalem: Rebirth of a City (Viking author provides an interesting account of
Prees), or whether priority should be Theodor Herzl's visit in Palestine and
given to the latter. There is a special his meeting there with Kaiser Wilhelm,
significance to the latter due to the emi- timing the visit to be able to confront
nence of its author. Prof. Martin Gilbert the German ruler with a Zionist appeal.
incorporates in his latest work about the Also recalled are the descriptions of
rebirth of Jerusalem the history of the Jerusalem by Mark Twain and Karl
Holy City between the years of 1838 and Marx.
While the Mark Twain comment is
1898. Gilbert is the official biographer of
Winston Churchill. He is the distin- fairly well known and has been quoted
guished Oxford historian whose on occasions, it is worth repeating here.
documentaries, compiled as historical re- The American humorist and noted
cords detail the descriptive events. They author is thus referred to among the
are inerasable contributions to the many visits to Jerusalem:
Holocaust library and major Jewish his-
Another visitor was Mark
torical records. His Jerusalem is deeply
Twain, who wrote of how: "Rags,
Karl Marc:
1850s description.
wretchedness, poverty, and dirt,
those signs and symbols that
indicate the presence of Moslem
rule more surely than the
crescent-flag itself, abound. Lep-
ers, cripples, the blind, and the
idiotic assail you on every hand :"
Jerusalem, Mark Twin added, "is
mournful, and dreary, and life-
less. I would not desire to live
here."
Additionally noteworthy is the fol-
lowing, perhaps lesser known, Karl
Marx depiction of Jerusalem:
But it was in New York that
the most outspoken description
of life in Jerusalem was pub-
lished that year, by Karl Marx, in
an article in the New York Daily
Tribune on April 15, 1954. "Noth-
ing," wrote Marx, "equals the
misery and the sufferings of the
Jews at Jerusalem, inhabiting
the most filthy quarter of the
town, called Hareth-el-yahoud, in
the quarter of dirt, between the
Zion and the Moriah, where their
synagogues are situated — the
constant object of Mussulman
oppression and intolerance, in-
sulted by the Greeks, persecuted
by the Latins, and living only
upon the scanty alms transmitted
by the European brethren."
Marx also gave his readers
an account of the distribution of
people in the city. "The sedentary
population of Jerusalem," he told
his readers, "numbers about
15,500 souls, of whom 4,000 are
Mussulmans and 8,000 Jews. The
Mussulmans forming about a
fourth part of the whole, and
consisting of Turks, Arabs and
Moors, are, of course, the masters
in every respect."
Especially noteworthy in the Gilbert
book is the description of the meeting
between Theodor Herzl and Kaiser
Wilhelm of Germany. At the outside
Gilbert recorded the following:
Herzl's visit had been care-
fully timed, to coincide with
Jerusalem's event of the decade,
the visit of the German Kaiser.
Ostensibly going to Jerusalem to
dedicate the Protestant Church
of the Redeemer, the Kaiser's
visit was to be Germany's display
of power in the Near East.
The Kaiser had already been
to Constantinople, as the guest of
the Sultan. Indeed, Theodor
Herzl had met him in the Otto-
man capitol on 18 October, when
the Kaiser had offended the
Zionist leader by talk of Jewish
"usurers" in • Germany proving
"more useful citizens" if they
Theodor Herzl:
Meeting the Kaizer.
were to take their money and set-
tle in Palestine. "That he should
identify the Jews," Herzl wrote,
"with a few money lenders, irri-
tated me."
Now German Kaiser and Au-
strian Jew were to meet again,
during the Kaiser's Near Eastern
triumph. Lest the Turks should
try to "keep him out" of Pales-
tine, Herzl had prepared a tele-
gram to the Kaiser, "recounting
the ohlificulties raised against us."
But no such difficulties occurred
for him, or for his four Zionist
companions. "When we got into
the big Cook's landing boat,"
Herzl wrote, "where I had the
Rumanian woman sit with us — I
learned that German police
would be at the pier. I jumped
ashore, and while the Turkish
police were sniffing through our
documents, I took the German of-
ficial aside and told him that we
were here at the Kaiser's com-
mand: they should let the five
white cork-helmets pass through
at once. This was done. I gave
the Rumanian woman over to
Mme Gaulis, the wife of a French
journalist, sitting in the next
boat: she was to pass off the
Rumanian as her servant. Mme
Gaulis complied, the poor old
woman clung to the French
lady's skirt and thus slipped
through the cordon — happy be-
yond words at being in Palestine
and able to visit her daughter
who was at death's door. What
forms of happiness there are!"
With the visit of the German
Kaiser, the city of Jerusalem
entered the modern age. The
Kaiser was a grandson of Queen
Victoria. In his diplomatic ac-
tions, he seemed determined to
show himself, and the German
Empire, superior to his nephew,
the Prince of Wales, and to the
British Empire of whi
ch the Pr-
ince would soon be the ruler.
Victoria was in the sixty-first
year of her reign. The Kaiser was
a relative newcomer to power.
In preparation for the
Kaiser's visit, and to enable him
to enter the city. on horseback, a
breach had been made in the low
wall, next to the Jaffa Gate. •At
the same time, a metalled road
was built from the Damascus
Gate to the crest of Mount
Scopus, and to a site on the crest
granted by the Sultan to the
Kaiser for a German hospice, the
Augusta Victoria, named after
the Kaiser's wife. Here, from a
tower almost asi tall as the Rus-